Strontium helping zoanthids?

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Oh cool! thanks a lot for doing this research.

You are welcome

You can find a lot of hits with "Zoa loves strontium" and things like that I think with soft corals and the norms like "easy to keep", many people overlook the fact that soft corals also require some things (stronti, iodi, bromine, etc.) to grow and zoas, being possibly the most finicky among soft corals (another one is gorgs IME), react the most with trace elements.

[daniella3d]

I am wondering what is the effet of overdosing. From one link you posted it seem that strontium can be toxic if present in too large quantity so testing before dosing should be done.

I know for sure in my case that my reef is always low in strontium if not dosing. I guess I will buy a Salifert strontium kit as it seem to be the best kit out there (Seachem too complicated).

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

I am wondering what is the effet of overdosing. From one link you posted it seem that strontium can be toxic if present in too large quantity so testing before dosing should be done.

I know for sure in my case that my reef is always low in strontium if not dosing. I guess I will buy a Salifert strontium kit as it seem to be the best kit out there (Seachem too complicated).

I am no expert in trace elements but as far as the general idea goes, even a bit overdosing of iodi, stronti and all other thing (bromine, sulphate, potassium, etc.) can be more toxic to lives than overdosing the big three. Maybe because of the reactive nature of those ions or something. Maybe that's why they are present in such small amount in nature.

Since you have found it useful maybe you should grab a stronti kit

[Tracey2]

Daniella, thanks for starting this thread, its time we figures this out, too many people cannot keep zoas. I love zoas and mine used to grow amazingly, then one day they started to melt, not all of them just certain colonies. I don't think it has anything to do with nitrates, mine read 0, I have noticed impovement with more frequent larger water changes so they must need something replenished. I am going to try strontium and will report back, thanks again.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Tracey2

Daniella, thanks for starting this thread, its time we figures this out, too many people cannot keep zoas. I love zoas and mine used to grow amazingly, then one day they started to melt, not all of them just certain colonies. I don't think it has anything to do with nitrates, mine read 0, I have noticed impovement with more frequent larger water changes so they must need something replenished. I am going to try strontium and will report back, thanks again.

That's zoa alright

Now-a-days, whenever someone tells me "zoa/paly are beginner's coral", I chuckle

[mikepclo]

Zoa's don't seem to like my tank as well...following this thread for sure!

Please keep us updated with testing as I've read Strontium is hard to test???

Thanks!

[11purewater]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

That's zoa alright

Now-a-days, whenever someone tells me "zoa/paly are beginner's coral", I chuckle

I agree with that!

[daniella3d]

In the reefaction forum there is a chymist that has access to a very large pro lab (He's the head of the metal testing dept.) and he's willing to help test the test kits for strontium to see which is more precise. He was the one who analyzed my water and pointed out the low level of strontium. Strontium in natural sea water is around 12ppm and in my tank the strontium is constantly at 6ppm, so quite low. It seem that even water changes does not manage to keep the strontium level to a normal level.

He analyzed the water from around 10 different tanks and all were low in strontium, even those that are doing water changes each week. Why? I don't know. Maybe some of the corals and creatures we keep in our aquariums are consuming more strontium than we think.

He has been dosing strontium for a year. He's lucky to have acccess to a big lab so he can test this easily and he keep is level around 10ppm I beleive. After we manage to determine which test is better, I will be testing my water again to see if I am dosing correcly. I will try to keep my strontium level around 10ppm or so.

I would not advise dosing strontium regulary without testing. One could surely try to add a bit of it to see if it would help their declining zoanthids but before going wild with this and starting to dose, I would test.

I posted this so that maybe someone with problem zoanthids could also verify if they are getting some results by dosing a bit of strontium and to see if it help. It seem that most of our tanks are low in strontium and it is rare to see one with proper level.

Originally Posted by Tracey2

Daniella, thanks for starting this thread, its time we figures this out, too many people cannot keep zoas. I love zoas and mine used to grow amazingly, then one day they started to melt, not all of them just certain colonies. I don't think it has anything to do with nitrates, mine read 0, I have noticed impovement with more frequent larger water changes so they must need something replenished. I am going to try strontium and will report back, thanks again.

[ScubaSteve]

Calcareous corals can incorporate strontium into their skeletons, hence with the Sr levels will deplete over time.

Daniella, if you can, see if he can test some of your freshly mixed water before a water change. I'd be curious to know if the Sr levels are already low in your salt mix, which would give you consistently low readings. We might be able to pinpoint what is using it the most.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Calcareous corals can incorporate strontium into their skeletons, hence with the Sr levels will deplete over time.

Daniella, if you can, see if he can test some of your freshly mixed water before a water change. I'd be curious to know if the Sr levels are already low in your salt mix, which would give you consistently low readings. We might be able to pinpoint what is using it the most.

+1. Many salts skip on proper levels of such elements. Maybe because of their expense? Or to keep the market of the trace elements alive?